Colorado Conversations: September 2015

August 1, 2015
(click the pictures to see them larger!)

We arrived in Calhan, Colorado shortly after 11:00 am. It was HOT.

Paint Mines Interpretive Park is located just south of the small town of Calhan. I compare it to the Badlands in South Dakota, only much smaller, and possibly more colorful.

We parked at the second parking lot and hiked down into the canyon from there. Some stories of the location claimed that the trail there is very steep. I suppose that is true, but don't let that discourage you! It certainly was not unmanageable! The first parking lot has nice trails, but you must walk farther to get to the canyon area.

From the parking lot, looking down.

KT and Mainiac, exploring.

Fairy Trumpet Flowers, or Ipomopsis aggregata

We made good use of the timer on my camera!

Please visit my other blog, www.quirkykiwifruit.blogspot.com, for pictures as well! The posts will be similar, but I'm changing a few of the pictures on each.

Evening 1--July 31, 2015
Day 1--August 1, 2015
Wisconsin to Bettendorf, Iowa
Bettendorf, Iowa to Calhan, Colorado

We left the house right on schedule: 6:30 pm! ....And then we had to stop 20 minutes down the road. Mainiac had accidentally left her phone, drivers license, and debit card in her family's car, and we needed to pick that up before heading out of state. Thankfully we discovered it was missing before we made it to Colorado!
Driving west into the sunset, we watched the rear-view mirror as a "blue moon" rose behind us. A blue moon, according to Wikipedia, is

"a second full moon in a month of the common calendar."

KT and El took the first driving/navigating shift, then we paused at my grandparents' house long enough to say hello, change into comfy clothes, and pick up the GPS.
I took the next leg of the journey and made it almost to Council Bluffs. Mainiac made a wonderful navigator, and kept me awake with funny stories, trivia pulled up on her phone (thank goodness for 3G!), and classic Newsboys/Michael W. Smith sing-alongs. Sometime between 1 and 2 AM I realized that driving any further would be a very unwise decision, so we switched out with El and KT and slept until we reached Kearney, Nebraska.

Blue Moon around 2-3:00 am.

Blue moon around 6:00am, when we stopped for gas in Kearney

From Kearney we dropped down into Kansas on a road parallel to the railroad, taking us through small towns such as Long Island and Funk.

Some might think that the drive through Kansas would be boring, since the road is so flat and straight, but I thought it was beautiful. We drove through fields of sunflowers and over the west end of beautiful Harlan County Lake.
Driving through Kansas might have been my favorite drive of the trip. Okay, maybe not The Favorite. The Peak-to-Peak Highway and Trail Ridge Road both had some fantastic scenery! But this was pretty and quiet and peaceful.